FBI, National Guard Search for Missing Boy Kyron Harmon

Kyron Horman, a 7-year-old Portland, Ore., boy disappeared Friday, June 4, 2010, at Skyline Elementary School, shortly after leaving an early morning science fair, where he presented his project on tree frogs.

Courtesy the Horman family

The FBI and National Guard have been called in to join the search for a 7-year-old Portland, Ore., boy who disappeared from his elementary school after being last seen Friday morning.

Kyron Harmon went to Skyline Elementary School early Friday morning with his step-mother, Terri Moulton Kaine, to participate in a science fair, but no one saw him after she left him, walking down a hallway to his classroom at around 8:45 a.m..

When Kyron did not return home on his school bus as scheduled at 3:30 p.m. Friday June 4, his family called to report that he had not returned home.

The Multnomah County Sherriff's Office was contacted at approximately 4 p.m.

"We definitely got a late start here," sheriff's office spokeswoman Lt. Mary Lindstrand said today. "The family didn't know that he wasn't at school, his teacher didn't see him so we are feeling like we are behind the eight-ball here."

Staff at the school said they never saw Kyron after the science fair, and he did not make it to his classroom.

Multnomah County called in the Search and Rescue team to begin their search of the area surrounding the school. As the evening progressed, SearchOne Canine Inc. and officer from the Portland Police Department also joined the search.

The sheriff's office decided to upgrade the search to a Major Crimes Team investigation, which allowed it to deploy more resources, which included resources from Portland Police Bureau, Gresham Police Department, Fairview Police Department, Oregon State Patrol and the FBI.

Search and Rescue resources also expanded to include Mountain Rescue, Yamhill County Canine, along with additional members of the Multnomah County Search and Rescue team and the Portland police air unit.

The search continued through the the night, covering more than 20 miles of roadway and two square miles.

The search resumed today at approximately 7 a.m., and the sherriff's office brought in more support, including search and rescue resources from Washington County Sherriff's Office, Yamhill County Sherriff's Office, Clark County Washington, Pacific NW Search and Rescue, and a National Guard helicopter.

"We look for them with due diligence to try and find him, this is devastating for the family or anyone who knows him," Lindstrand said. "We just want to find him and get him home safe."

The search has been made difficult by the high grasses on the property surrounding the school.

"If they're not calling out to you, unless you basically step right over them you're going to miss them," a Multnomah County Sheriff's Office spokesman said today.

Gina Zimmerman, president of the school PTA, told the Portland Oregonian today that her 8-year-old daughter Madi has been a classmate of Kyron's for three years.

"He's not the type of child who would just go out of school and go searching or wandering around," Zimmerman said. "He's just a timid, sweet boy.

"Everybody's just worried and in shock that this could happen in our little school where everybody knows everybody," she said.

She said the K-8 school has about 300 students. The principal, Ben Keefer, declined to comment Saturday.

Zimmerman told the newspaper that most of the parents and students of the K-8 school, which has about 300 students, arrived at the school shortly after 8 a.m. Friday for the end-of-year science fair.

She said Terri Korman took a photograph of Kyron in front of his project, which her daughter Madi said was on the red-eye tree frog.